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Of course most people know of London because of the Queen, who lives at Buckingham Palace and has a number of other properties around the city. There is much more to London than the Queen and the usual tourist attractions of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the likes. As the largest city in Europe the city is one of the most cosmopolitan in England and each sector of the city has it’s own uniqueness. To experience the quintessential London it is best to spend some time in the area known as the East End.

To some people the location of the East End is obvious, but the average tourist is often confused, expecting only a small area. In actual fact the East End encompasses all those districts which are to be found east of the centre. Of course such a large area contains a number of highly interesting places to visit and a number of top class tourist attractions. One thing that you really should make the effort to see is the fascinating collection of dolls houses at Bethnal Green Museum. The collection contains numerous antique houses dating back to the 17th century.

Londoner’s who live in the East End are generally known, and commonly referred to, as “Cockneys”. However, to be a true Cockney the person has to have been born within the sound of “Bow Bells” (the “Bow Bells” are the bells from Bow Church). Strangely the word “Cockney” is derived from the middle English word “cokeney” which is the name given to misshaped eggs or cock’s eggs.

Sadly, during the dark times of the plague (1348-50), there were so many men, women and children killed that the dead had to be disposed of in large pits rather than individual graves. Archaeologists, digging in the area around Tower Bridge, found the remains of more than 700 bodies.

The very first dock to be built in the East End was called the West India Dock (built 1800-1802) closely followed by the building of the East India Dock (1806). Servicing the city of London the port continued to expand and until the 1960’s it was the busiest port in the world. With such a large amount of goods being handled, around 35 million tons at it’s peak in the 1930’s, the port had an extremely large workforce of around one hundred thousand souls.

The East End of London has been home to many famous & infamous characters. The famous explorer Captain Cook married the daughter of the landlord of an East End public house in which Cook often visited. Another famous person closely associated with the East End is Joseph Merrick because he had been appearing in a freak show at the Mile End Road billed as “The Elephant Man”, sadly a name to which he remains most widely known as to this day.

The East End has an even darker side to its history; steeped with murder, mystery and other crimes. Two names that spring to mind when talking of the East End are those of the infamous, gangster twins, Ronnie and Reggie Kray around whom a number of modern myths and legends have developed. The most famous criminal associated with the East End will, most probably, always be Jack the Ripper, because of the brutality of his crimes. In 1888 he butchered five women in Whitechapel then disappeared, to this day nobody can be sure of his true identity though there are many theories.

The East End of London has always been the place in which new settlers set up home. At different times the area has been dominated by various cultures (during the time of Jack the Ripper it was predominantly Jewish. This led to many folk automatically assuming that he would also be a Jew) and today we have an East End that is incredibly vibrant with an amazingly diverse population incorporating many different races, cultures and creeds.